Title: Phantom

Summary: The uninhibited house was settled in a nice neighborhood, untouched for years, no one ever living inside. But one day, a sold sign was listed in front and a group of eight walked in to live at their new home. The problem is that the so-called abandoned house wasn't so abandoned and never was.

Pairing: None

Rating: K+

A/N: Been a while since my last update. Opps.

Beta'd by WhiteAngel128 and Ankou13

Chapter 6

Luce didn't know what to expect when Reborn came down the stairs after that shower of his. She really didn't. Despite knowing that Tsuna was going to play a few pranks on him, she knew that Reborn was a strong man who was never really moved by anything unless it was personal. But how would he react to a ghost messing with him? That, she didn't know. So she couldn't help but be a little eager when she heard his footsteps come down the stairs, listening to everything carefully to see if there were any differences in the tones.

However, Reborn strolled in looking like there was nothing wrong with the world and sat down at the table with his legs crossed below. He appeared perfectly normal, like nothing had actually happened. He was dressed lightly, missing his jacket and fedora, and his hair was slicked back impeccably from the wash. Luce tilted her head at the sight and shrugged her shoulders. Reborn was probably hiding his emotions and thoughts about the situation so as not to alert her to anything that was going on. It was pretty clear of him unless Tsuna hadn't really done anything. The hitman was always that type of gentlemanly person when it came to woman. Luce smiled softly towards the male and placed down a plate of food, something simple that would sustain him until dinner.

"Did you have any problems finding this place?" Luce asked, trying to start a simple conversation.

Reborn took a bite of his provided tuna salad sandwich and shook his head. "No, it was quite easy. Nice place, I can already see your touches." He nodded in thanks when the leader placed down a cup of espresso, his favorite drink. "You really considered everything, didn't you? You chose the perfect place for all of us."

"But of course. We're not exactly a quiet bunch of people."

The hitman smirked at those words, knowing exactly how true that was. His mind momentarily flashed to his other companions, knowing how their personalities would sometimes clash with each other. The resulting amount of noise from their fights would certainly draw a lot of unwanted attention. Well, anyone would be suspicious if they repeatedly heard gunshots going off throughout the day. He took another bite, chewing slowly as he peered up at the owner of the household before looking around the place once more. He saw nothing suspicious about the incident in the bathroom and was tempted to sigh. Shaking his head mentally, he tried to forget about the incident.

He knew that eventually, with such strangeness, he would need to thoroughly investigate the place to see if there was anything hidden – either in its history or if there was something that was left behind. He didn't believe anything really happened in the bathroom, that the sounds had come from behind the wall or the lock on the door probably wasn't on. Although the house looked quite well managed, it was always possible that the previous caretaker didn't exactly take care of it properly. It must have been the house itself and the words on the mirror were probably left behind, never being cleaned off correctly. Thinking logically about everything, he dismissed the occurrence without a second thought. Of course, that didn't mean he was going to relax. He was a hitman through and through and wouldn't hesitate in firing the next time he heard a sound. Shoot first, ask questions later – that was his motto. Well, aside from the 'do everything with your dying will'.

For the rest of the day, Reborn had attempted to get himself settled into his new home by exploring the various rooms. He even went outside to the woods behind the house, taking a small walk around the area to see if there was anything that might be hidden from one's eyes. There wasn't really anything, but it was still wonderful exploring the woods in the setting sunlight. It was peaceful, only the sounds of the wind and animals could be heard. For the rest of the day and night, he sat out on the front porch, watching the scenery in front of the house. It was quite enjoyable, a break from his dark life. He could see the point of Luce choosing this place.

Later that night, when it was already bedtime, Reborn took that time to settle into his new bedroom. His stuff that had been brought in earlier that day had already been sorted out and organized into fitting locations. There was also his new bed, it was wonderful. The mattress was soft yet still had that firmness to it that didn't have him sinking into the middle.

Reborn buried his face into his pillow, enjoying the silkiness of the pillowcase. The softness helped ease his mind about many things, leaving him in peace. Huffing gently to himself, he pulled the blankets closer to his form, snuggling into the warmth as the night went on. Everything was quiet, it was just absolute silence. It was something he loved dearly during the night since it gave him a sense of peace. If it was quiet, it meant there was no one around or awake. Even if someone was trying to sneak into his new found home, he would hear them. The beating of the heart, the puffs of air, everything could be heard in such a silence. His eyes were closed as he buried his face further into the soft pillow and sighed blissfully.

As he was just beginning to drift off into dreamland, he heard a small squeak of the boards. Immediately, he shifted in bed by habit as he tried to concentrate on the sound before pushing it off, thinking it was just the floor boards creaking. The sound was too far off, outside his bedroom door. It wasn't something he needed to pay attention to. Reborn stretched momentarily before calming down, waiting for himself to relax once more into the sheets.

Just as he fully relaxed, the blankets were suddenly tugged downward to his waist. Reborn snapped his eyes open, instantaneously jumping up from his bed, and peered down at the end to see if there was anyone there. His eyes examined the entire area, already adjusted to the darkness of the room. No one. There was no one there. Reborn growled darkly in anger, tugging the covers back up around his shoulders without any resistance. He kept a firm grip on the sheets, lying back down as he tried to relax and ignore what had just happened. It wasn't possible for his sheets to be pulled down like that when there was no one there in the first place, it just wasn't possible. However, he couldn't stop the process his mind was going through. His head kept thinking over all the strange happenings that were just hours apart. As he tried to think of a logical explanation for all of these strange occurrences, especially the one that had just occurred, his sheets were pulled down once more. This time, it went flying off the bed completely like it had been ripped away. Reborn spun around, hopping off the bed to find the intruder.

Still nothing in the sight.

"Who's there?" He stepped against the hardwood barefooted, ignoring the shiver that went up his spine from the coldness, and spun around the room carefully. Reborn stalked towards the end of the bed and grabbed hold of the sheets, trying to find something that would explain everything. But he found nothing, nothing that could be seen. As he placed the blankets back onto the bed, fluffing them out to be comfortable, he suddenly found a small bubble-thing under the sheets and in the center of the bed. "What the…"

He automatically reached towards the bubble, pressing down to see if there was something underneath. It wasn't that large, just big enough to be the size of a hand, and watched as the bubble went down at the compression. The oddest thing was that he felt nothing underneath. Just the mattress and that was it. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity, pulling away from the spot. The bubble was gone until it began to blow up once more like someone was blowing air into it, remaining in the same spot as if taunting him. Reborn raised his other eyebrow at the sight and this time pulled the sheets back to see what was underneath. There was nothing. He reached down and pressed onto the spot, trying to figure out how that had happened.

Knock.

The hitman glanced up towards his bedroom door, thinking someone was on the other side, but he didn't move. His mind was already logically considering his situation. It was around eleven at night, Luce wouldn't be awake around this time, then that left… Reborn took a step back instead of forward and reached towards his jacket that was hanging on a chair against his desk to pull out a small handgun. A silencer was at the end and he clicked the safety off, ready to fire at any moment.

Knock. Knock.

He silently growled, his onyx eyes snapping towards his bed. The sound had come from the wall behind his bed this time, the knock loud and clear. It was like someone was rapping their knuckles against the wood gently, like a small tap and was obviously demanding attention. Reborn glanced from his door to the spot behind the bed. Was he being messed with?

Knock. Knock.

'What the…' The sound had come from his window this time. He was certain of that but knew it wasn't possible. This was the second floor after all. Reborn carefully observed the window that had a curtain covering the frame, preventing him from seeing the other side. Keeping his weapon at his side, he slowly stepped towards the window, following the sound with his sharp ears. He couldn't see anything on the curtains from the moonlight behind them, no shadow to reveal the figure who was causing all of this trouble. His mind was racing, trying once more to find some logical explanation, but he turned up with nothing. 'Could it be… supernatural?' Reborn wanted to curse that out, he didn't really believe in things like that, but it would explain this mess. It would explain it easily. His fingers slowly grasped onto the curtain and with one strong tug, he snapped the blinds back to reveal the outside world. He examined each angle and corner, hoping to find something. But just like everything else, there was nothing there. The window had been placed in an area that faced the street and there was no ledge for someone to stand on to reach this spot.

Knock. Knock.

Reborn froze, a shiver running down his spine. The knock had come behind him, but not just behind. It was from his closet. 'Shit.' Slowly he spun around, gazing at the wooden door. There was no light and he was certain there was no way to gain entry from on the other side. Regardless, he pulled his pride and courage together and stepped forward, wanting to get to the bottom of this. He hesitated for a moment when his fingers began to reach out to the knob, not sure if he was even going to find anything. It was probably going to be empty again like everything else so far. He was being messed with; he had no doubt of that. Growling loudly, he grasped the knob tightly with his fingernails attempting to dig into the metal and swung the door open. A gust of air hit him at the force, ruffling his hair and clothes, but as he expected, there was nothing but darkness. Still, he turned on the closet light, stepping in to look over the place to settle his mind. There was no hidden entryway, no possible explanation as to how that noise came to be. Nothing.

A small shiver of fear fell down his spine, he was unsure about his unknown situation. Could there really be… ghosts? Reborn didn't believe in such bullshit. He only believed in what he could actually hit and this wasn't one of them. Even though Viper had his psychic abilities, abilities that, many times, he couldn't see with his eyes, Reborn could still dodge Viper's attacks and return his own assault. This was something else. He took a few steps back after closing the closet door, turning off the light, and rotated towards the rest of the room. There was no way he was going to be able to get any sort of rest now, none whatsoever. Sneering angrily to himself, he forced himself to calm his beating heart and took a deep breath to let out all the built up tension that bad been created within mere seconds.

'I need a drink, something to at least calm me down.' Reborn ran a hand through his hair, smoothing out the black locks. It was quiet now – no sound and no strange knocking either. Taking that whatever was causing everything had calmed down, Reborn stepped towards the bedroom door and twisted on the knob open, stepping out of the cursed room. He needed to get away from here for now, to rest his mind. He placed his hands into his pockets, trying to keep an aura of calm despite what he had just faced and slowly made his way down the stairs. The place was dark, late into the night, but he was well adapted to this type of setting. It was something he was familiar with; he worked and lived in this area.

His footsteps were completely silent even as he went down the stairs and glanced down the hallway where Luce was located. The lights were off, that he expected. There was no way she would still be awake at this point of time. Making his way towards the kitchen, he flicked on the lights and stepped around the unfamiliar room he had only been in twice. He only remembered where certain things were located from where he had explored and Luce had opened. However, all he needed was a glass and a bottle of alcohol of some sort. Luckily for him, his boss knew all about his favorite types of drinks, something he appreciated when she told him during dinner.

Grabbing the needed supplies from two cabinets, he went towards the refrigerator to grab some ice, not wanting something lukewarm going down his throat. As he leaned over the refrigerator, taking notice of the blank door that only had the words 'things to do' with various letter magnets scattered around, he pressed the glass into the ice machine. The familiar sound of the gears inside the icebox working filled the room and Reborn felt himself finally calming down completely. However, when he pulled back, his glass filled, it took every will in his body to not drop said glass to the floor.

'Hello Reborn'

"What…" There, on the right door, the letter magnets had spelled out a greeting. The message that had been there before was completely gone and Reborn knew that, he knew that for certain. It couldn't have been just a simple trick of his eyes or someone coming in to mess with him. Placing the glass down onto the center table, he reached towards the magnets and pulled one off. He didn't see anything suspicious or anything that would explain how they could have moved there. "How did…"

He took a few steps back and turned away from the sight, not wanting to see it. He couldn't believe it, not at all. 'There can't be such thing as a ghost…' Reborn opened the drink and poured himself a large cup of whiskey, gulping about half of it down within seconds. He could feel it burning down his throat, but he ignored it, hoping to give himself some sort of clarity. His eyes were shut while he once again tried to calm himself down, and as he slowly opened them, he blinked.

Before him at the end of the table was a young male, somewhere in his mid to early twenties, staring directly at him. The male looked harmless, watching him almost out of curiosity, and tilted his head to one side for a moment. At that movement, his shoulder length spiky brown hair at fell across his face in long bangs. They covered up his large honey-colored eyes that were obviously looking straight at him and seemed more alive than the man physically appeared. He was dressed in a long-sleeved, button-up white shirt and plain black slacks. It fit the man well, forming around his body perfectly, but that wasn't the issue. The problem was how the person had got there and when.

Reborn didn't move, simply staring at the other inquisitively with suspicion casting over his eyes. 'When had he snuck up on me? I didn't hear any doors or windows opening.' He peered around the room from the corner of his eyes, his mind still clear despite the alcohol that was running through his veins. He didn't have his weapons with him, but he was fine with that, he was skilled in close combat and there were plenty of items in the kitchen that could be taken advantage of. Placing his glass onto the counter, he took a step around the table.

"Who are you?" His voice was even, showing no fear to this stranger. "And how did you get here?"

The brunet didn't say anything, glancing around him curiously as if he hadn't noticed the words being pointed towards him. It was like he was looking for said stranger.

Reborn growled and slammed his hand against the table, startling the other. "Hey, you! There are only two of us here! Don't try to act stupid."

This time, it caught the younger man's attention, blinking rapidly as he tried to confirm Reborn's words. He reached up and pointed towards himself in surprise like he hadn't expected to get caught.

"Yes you."

"Eh?" The male whispered with surprise lacing his voice. "You can… see me?" The brunet stepped forward as if trying to confirm. "You can… hear me?"

"Of course, idiot. Have you been the one trying to scare me this entire time?" Reborn didn't understand the strangeness of the brunet at all. Why was it so strange that he could see him? Of course he could see him! He was standing there as clear as day.

The brunet reached up to grasp his shirt near the center and bit down on his bottom lip. "But it's impossible for you to see me."

"Why?"

"Because I'm dead."

Reborn only noticed in that one moment, from those words, that the male was hovering a few inches off the floor.

Sadly, this isn't as scary as others want it to be mainly because you guys already know what's going on and who's causing the entire mess. Hopefully, my next update won't take as long... maybe.